My soon to be ex-parent-in-laws went through a similar “conversion” about ten years ago. They realized that the Christian Right in politics were very unChristian in how they behaved. You have a good heart and you try to act in the best interests of society at large, unlike most in politics on both sides of the aisle. Politics is a nasty business and the best the voters can hope to do is to mitigate the damage.
I second what elucidator said and promise to throw the incompentents out of the Democratic party and the Green party, depending on which one I happen to be affiliated with at the time. As such, I am withdrawing my support for Rep. Harold Ford Jr.'s run for the Democratic nomination for the Senate from Tennessee and am now seeking an alternative candidate.
You got a problem with marijuana legalization? Seems to be working in the Netherlands. Our nation didn’t collapse during the 148 odd years before we got around to making it illegal. Come on, you can come up with a better analogy than that.
Only for gay whales, if I read correctly. Anyway, I must protest this egregious spreading of falsehood by the esteemed Poster from Nipples, MN. So far as I know, there is in fact no existing legislation prohibiting marijuana use by gay whales.
Now, under a House bill recently introduced and co-sponsored by Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum, however…
I can’t believe I went back and looked to see who was from Nipples, MN. :smack: :wally
Not sure, but wasn’t he the one that said the Teletubbies were gay? Okay…scary, yes…but GAY? There’s no way those monochromatic outfits would have passed any gay test I know of.
No, that was Jerry Falwell. Isn’t it hard to keep the members of the American Taliban separate nowadays? 
Not that Falwell isn’t a whack-job all on his own, but IIRC it wasn’t Falwell himself, but a member of his staff, who declared that Tinky Winky was gay.
Another atheist liberal checking in with kudos for Theologue. Folks like you give Christians a good name.
Nope, it was Falwell who made the claim. Or at least the “outing” appeared over his signature:
However, it was religious conservative James Dobson of Focus on the Family who alleged that SpongeBob SquarePants is gay (or actually, that he’s being used to promote tolerance of homosexuals). It does get difficult to keep these bigots straight! Er, I mean, to tell them apart.
It isn’t the ‘Be-A-Liberal Today! bandbook’ that lead people to these conclusions. It was the application of common sense to the evidence.
The current GOP may have a policy of repudiating evidence and reality in favour of faith based reasoning. That doesn’t mean a handle on reality becomes the sole property of ‘Liberals.’ There was nothing partisan about the predictions you described.
Plenty of RRR knew full well they were taking a plunge into disaster, but it was the only way to win the election. So they stayed silent, or joined the chorus of deceit.
Theologue, I’m another liberal Christian who’s asking you to stay Republican.
I can’t support making abortion illegal because I don’t like what I think the consequences of doing so would be and no form of birth control is 100% effective. I’m also pro-choice because of the cruelty I’ve seen from the more obnoxious anti-abortionists, i.e., calling people walking into Planned Parenthood, etc. “murderers” and “baby killers” when, for all the protesters know, they may be seeking treatment for a miscarriage.
I support homosexual marriage and don’t consider homosexuals inherently more sinful than heterosexuals because one of my oldest and dearest friends is gay and has found an honorable man he’s spent the last 11 years of his life with and would like to spend the rest of his life with. Still, Senator Rick Santorum, who supposedly represents me, considers his relationship more of a threat to marriage than another representative in my state who recently made news for allegedly beating his mistress. The beating hasn’t been proven, as far as I know; the adulterous relationship has.
I focus on God’s mercy and compassion because, frankly, the mercy and compassion God showed to me when I was determined to die saved my life 13 years ago. If God were as harsh and judgemental as He’s depicted, I’d have been dead long before I fired up a computer and started making ttrouble on a message board.
The thing is, the Republican Party and some conservative Christians, including Mr. Santorum, aren’t inclined to listen to me. It’s too easy to write me off as just another wishy-washy liberal. I write from personal experience. When people like you, people with whom they have things in common and whom they think they understand, start paying objecting and threatening to vote with your feet, they may start to pay attention.
Staying and fighting for change isn’t easy. Then again, no one ever said it would be, and one Man who lived a couple of thousand years ago specifically said it would be difficult. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that. Vote and speak your mind. It’s the only way we have to change things.
Peace be with you, brother,
CJ
He says this like it’s a bad thing 
I second my darling Boris ('luc, to youse)
Great post, you obviously are a thoughtful and fair-minded person, and a Christian who walks the talk.
Nah. I think he’s just feeling emboldened to be more honest.
Just out of curiosity, would you support John McCain if he ran? He’s Republican who’s unassociated with the Bush administration and a moderate who’s not afraid to occasionally stray from the right-wing agenda.
There was a time I would have, but now it would have to be a fantastically bad Democrat candidate.
McCain has gone ahead and gone (IMO) with party over country and ethics a whole bunch of times in the last few years.
We’ve already had that for some time now. I’m certain that McCain would be less bad than the current administration…but ‘less bad’ doesn’t necessarily make for ‘good’.
-Joe, MO
One of the problems is that social conservatism has been hijacked into service as a political diversion. The result is that the Republican leadership delivers a great deal of “Them Queer Porno Pagans Are Gonna Get Your Kids” rhetoric, but not much in the way of actual useful support for rank-and-file social conservative concerns (e.g. you still have to pay for art you may consider offensive, like it or not, because the GOP would rather have an ongoing greivance than an actual resolution).
Conservatives don’t seem to have any problem understanding that inappropriate reliance on government erodes the inclination, and eventually the ability, to take care of oneself. For some reason, the obvious corrolary (reliance on government moral mandates erodes the ability of social conservatives to use the superior methods of persuasion and example) seems lost on their leadership.
I really don’t know enough about McCain to say, but probably not. I too will probably support the Democrat candidate unless he or she is really bad. I’m starting to think a divided government, with the Congress and the White House in different hands, might be better.
At this stage (and things can change a lot in three years), I want a presidential candidate that is brave enough, among other things, to repent of the war, if he or she was either involved in the administration or in the Congress and voted for it. Sadly, I doubt that either party will do that.
Exactly. Too many have bought into the idea that “one day [always soon, but never today], we will pass this law/get this ruling, then everyone will be good after that.” Meanwhile, opportunities to make a real difference in the community are lost. We as Christians can make a much bigger difference by putting our Lord’s teachings into action rather than hoping for legislative miracles.